Phil always hated having to visit Tony's lab. Ever since inadvertently helping to ruin a Captain America shield prototype he was hesitant about the destruction that occurred all too often around Stark. So he wasn't all that surprised to be greeted by a small explosion as he opened the door.

"Dummy, what did I just tell you?!" Stark coughed, his figure barely distinguishable in a cloud of green smoke. "No. No! I don't care that you're sorry. At this rate I might have to give Butterfingers a fifth chance. Now go find a way to make yourself useful and remind me why I haven't scrapped you for parts yet."

Phil stepped into the room as Dummy went rolling past, his head/arm bowed so low that it was nearly dragging on the ground. If Phil's fingers just happened to be in the right spot to drag along the metal frame gently, well, that was his secret. Just because Stark was a pain in the ass didn't mean that everything he built was just as annoying.

"Having fun, Stark?"

Tony laughed, it turned into a hacking cough as he stepped from the dissipating smoke cloud. "Misjudged the pressure on the trigger mechanism of Clint's new arrows." Tony gestured half-heartedly to a table lined with shining silver shafts. Phil grabbed one and carefully inspected it.

"Smoke arrows? I don't remember requisitioning these."

"Cause you didn't." Stark plucked the arrow from Phil's hands and started tampering with it. "I'm just making them out of the goodness of my heart."

Phil barely succeeded in stopping himself from rolling his eyes. "Shouldn't you be doing something useful? Like fixing Barton's translator?"

"I take offense to that." Stark lifted a hand to his chest, fingers landing over the circle of blue light. "Everything I build is useful." Dummy chose that moment to knock something from a shelf behind Phil, the object clanged loudly against the cement floor. "Except you!" Tony shouted. "You are useless. More trouble than your worth –"

Stark turned, still muttering under his breath, his mind obviously back on the arrow in his hands. When it looked like he was just going to ignore Phil's question he cleared his throat loudly. He smiled just slightly at the way Stark's head snapped up and his eyes widened at the sudden realization that he wasn't alone. "The translator?" Phil huffed.

"oh." Tony nodded. "Yeah. It's here somewhere." He started digging through the piles of junk littering one of the workbenches. "Check that table, would you?"

Phil sighed and crossed to the table Tony had indicated, which was even more cluttered than the rest. He started picking his way through it, cautious of anything that might explode or try to eat him or otherwise cause him bodily harm. They'd been searching for a of couple minutes when Phil felt Stark's eyes on him. "Is there something you wish to discuss?" Phil didn't bother turning around.

"Yes" There was a beat as Tony hesitated. "Well, no. I don't want to discuss it. But I feel like someone should bring it up. Besides Natasha. Cause she's not really known for being logical about –"

"Stark!" Phil spun, lifting a hand to halt the flow of nonsense. "Short sentences. Straight to the point. We've discussed this."

"Fine." Stark's eyes darkened as his tone switched from nervousness to frustration. "You want straight to the point? How's this? You are an ass!" Phil raised an eyebrow at his outburst, curious as to what brought it on. "Fifteen minutes!" Oh. That. "Barton is safe. He could fly anywhere and you know that. But you still keep him tethered. Do you want to piss him off? Do you want to make it so that he never trusts you again?! Because that's what's going to happen.

"Once he finds out that you knew he would have a fifteen minute warning, he's never going to forgive you. This is basically his wildest dreams come true and you are keeping it from him. And the worst part is that we nearly lost him because of your stupidity and yet you still don't seem to get it. I mean, I'd expect this sort of double-crossing manipulation from Fury, but I thought you were better than that.

"Clint isn't an idiot. If you laid it all out for him and discussed this like rational adults then he would listen. I mean, this is you! You could ask him to jump to his death and he wouldn't even fucking hesitate. So if you just fucking asked him to stay low or tried to find some way to keep an eye on him while letting him fly where he wants… Just… put forth a little honesty, Coulson. It's what Barton responds to and you of all people should know that." Tony fell off with a huff.

"Are you finished?" Phil relished in the slight panic he saw flit across Stark's face at the hit of anger Phil added to his words.

"For now."

"Good. Because you are the last person in the universe who is authorized to preach the merits of honesty. If I remember correctly, Pepper only found out that you were dying because you let it slip during a fight." Tony opened his mouth to protest but fell silent as Phil's hand twitched towards the pocket where he kept his taser. "But I'm not saying that I won't consider what you've said. After all, you're right. Barton does place far too much on trust and honesty."

Stark seemed to have satisfied whatever had pushed him to broach the topic. He nodded and turned back to continue scouring the bench for the translator. Phil sighed before turning to do the same.

A few more minutes of awkward silence later, Phil finally spotted the metal band under a pile of blueprints. His fingers closed around it at the same instant that Stark let out a cry of success on the other side of the room. The sound came doubled to Phil's ears; one echoing each from the man behind him and from the translator in his hands.

"I think you left the comm on." Phil said, facing Stark. "Is this the new one or the old one?" They all looked the same to him.

"That's the one Barton damaged in the fight."

"You took Barton's tracker?"

"Don't get your panties in a twist, Agent. I hooked up a quick rig to monitor his movements. Jarvis will know if he tries to leave the Tower. Barton just asked me to take that one off. Said it was uncomfortable or something. I wasn't really paying attention." Tony walked towards him, spinning the newest translator as he did. "But this baby; this time I really outdid myself. Should withstand anything short of an atomic bomb. Hell, I even had Thor come down here and – and blast – just to be –"

He froze mid-step, his eyes going wide. Phil felt torn between confusion and worry. "Stark?"

"The comm is still on…"

"Yes. I said that."

"Which means that he could hear everything."

Phil was not thrilled by the way the blood was draining from Stark's face. "Who could hear what?" He asked slowly, measuring out each word carefully.

"Barton. Cap and I, earlier- " Tony swallowed and blinked, glancing up at Phil like he just noticed him again. "We need to find Barton. Now. No time to explain, but he may have misheard us and thought that we thought bird-him was more useful than human-him."

Of all the millions of times that Phil had been tempted to hit Stark so hard that even Jarvis would feel it this was the only time he didn't manage to reign it in. At least not completely. He let a single punch fly, feeling it land solidly against Stark's face and knowing it would create quite a brilliant black eye. But he didn't stand around to see Stark's reaction. He had more important things to do.

;;;

Clint bounced from foot to foot on the balcony railing. The metal was cold and damp in the early morning but his feet had no problem finding traction. (One of the things he loved about being a bird.) Thor seemed just as anxious as Clint. He had been asking him all morning if he was sure that he wanted to do this. He knew that the last time Clint and Loki had been face to face had been just after the Battle of New York. And to say that there was still some bad blood between them would be a bit of an understatement. But Clint was determined.

Clint rolled his eyes at the enormous puff of green and gold smoke that appeared from nowhere. He rolled them again as Loki strode from the smoke in full armor, his cloak billowing around him. Anyone who said that Fury had a thing for the dramatic had never met Loki. For a second Clint pictured a diva-off between the two of them. Both striding across the bridge of the helicarrier, both in black and leather and giving each other evil glares. Clint had to quickly stop picturing it else he risked laughing flat out in Loki's face, and that wouldn't win him any favors. Which was what this was: Clint asking for a favor.

;;;

Phil didn't need Jarvis to tell him that Clint would be on the balcony. The problem came when he stepped out onto the main balcony and Barton was nowhere to be seen. Phil checked the space methodically. It made sense for Clint to be somewhere more secretive if he needed time alone. And he would most certainly need time alone if he had heard what Stark said he'd heard. Barton was an arrogant sonofabitch but feeling useless or unnecessary was his secret Achilles heel. As was his habit of doing whatever it took to get a job done, no matter the personal cost or risk of injury.

So if he'd overheard what Stark claimed he'd overheard then the risk of Clint doing something stupid was at critical levels.

It was taking everything Phil had to keep his emotions under control as the search dragged out. Clint wasn't anywhere on the main balcony. He wasn't on the one off of the formal dining rooms that went unused until the team needed to garner some good press by hosting a dinner party. He wasn't on either balcony at each end of the 'Hulk-Out' floor that was specifically designed as a safe place just in case Bruce accidentally got angry. Phil could feel the seconds ticking past as he checked all of the most unused balconies while not-so-silently cursing Stark and his grandiose building plans.

Phil had just opened the sliding door to the balcony off the library when he heard an all-too familiar voice that wrapped his heart in blue and ice. Loki. He froze, quickly glancing around the balcony, but it seemed to be empty. Then he remembered that there was a secluded corner of this particular balcony, a quirk created by the odd shape of the building. The corner was impossible to see until you had nearly reached the far edge of the main balcony space and people in either space were invisible to anyone on the other side.

Phil relaxed marginally as he heard Thor's booming voice, hushed in his form of a whisper that was still far too loud. "I warn thee, brother. This is not a time for gaming." Phil used the sound of Thor's voice to cover his footsteps as he eased closer to the corner where the others were hidden. He had yet to hear Clint's voice (or chirp, as it were) and he needed to see if this was just a sibling quarrel or if he'd finally found Barton.

"Believe me, Thor, I understand the consequences of this decision far better than you do." The edge in Loki's voice sent shivers down Phil's spine. Even after all this time he couldn't help the wave of fear that washed over him every time he heard that voice. It always invariably led to him remembering the slide of metal through his chest. The ice that had shot through his veins, sucking the heat from his skin and pulling the life from his body. "For who better understands the concept of being unwanted. Of trusting, only to have your so-called family wish you were something else."

There was a sharp chirping sound in response to Loki's words. Barton. Phil pressed his back against the wall that separated him from the others, his attention now fully focused on the things being said.

"I still maintain that the others did not mean their words as they sounded." Thor pleaded. "They would not approve of this course of action."

There was another chirping sound and Phil wished that he had Thor's All-Speak or that Clint still had some form of translator on so that he could hear exactly what he was saying.

"I am not unreasonable." Loki's voice was too smooth. There was a chirp which Phil could instantly recognize as Clint's form of a laugh. "Do not test me, Barton." Loki hissed. "You forget that it is you asking me for the favor. One that I have no reason to grant to you."

More chirping.

"Friend Hawk, I do not believe that is a wise bargain." Phil was growing more uneasy as Thor's voice grew more strained. "Is it not possible that you are acting rashly?"

There was a sharp chirping in reply that seemed to drag on as if Barton was ranting about something. Phil used the moment to try and work through everything he'd heard so far. It was like putting together a jigsaw with half the pieces missing. But Phil had always been good at puzzles and it was only a matter of seconds before a theory formed in his mind. A theory that he prayed to god was wrong. Because if it was right then this was more serious than he'd thought. If it was right then he could be about to lose Clint forever, just like Stark had warned.

"I am growing impatient." Loki sighed once the chirping had fallen off. "There are more important matters that require my attention. So I require an answer, which species do you wish to be, Barton?"

Phil felt his heart drop so quickly and far that he imagined it had splattered onto the street hundreds of feet below. His theory had been right. Clint was asking Loki to make the change permanent. An edge of panic started to slip through Coulson's calm. He could fix this, he knew he could. He just needed a little bit of time. Just a few more days and he could figure out some way to make all of this better.

Phil felt his whole being resting on a knife edge as Barton chirped a quick reply. It had to have been a yes. Why else would Clint have had Thor bring Loki here? Clint was going to do this, and it was Phil's fault. Phil needed to stop him, to intervene before Clint did something irreversible. His body weight shifted as he prepared to swing himself around the wall and into view but he froze as Loki spoke.

"This offer will not last forever. Think the matter over and decide within the week. After that, any time that I come to this Tower, it will not be on friendly terms."

"Thank you, brother." Thor sounded as relieved as Phil felt. One week. Clint had apparently decided to think it over and that gave Phil all the time he needed.

He slid silently from the balcony before the others could notice him. He made a beeline for the parking garage, a plan already solidifying in his mind. It would be a delicate process, convincing Clint that something he had overheard wasn't actually true. But Phil had gotten Clint to believe that he was useful to SHEILD once before, he could certainly do it again with the Avengers. But first, he needed to talk to Fury.